Laura Ramsey, from 'She's the man' to 'The Covenant'

She wowed audiences with winning performances in recent box office hits "She's The Man" and "Venom." Now, Laura Ramsey stars in her first U.S. No. 1 hit, "The Covenant," a terrifying horror-thriller from Columbia Pictures and director Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2," "Exorcist: The Beginning").

Starring "Sky High's" Steven Strait, "The Covenant" tells the story of four young students bound by their sacred ancestry. As descendants of the original families who settled in Ipswich Colony in the 1600's, around the time of the Salem witch trials, the boys have all been born with their ancestors' supernatural powers. When a fifth descendant suddenly moves to town, secrets begin to unravel which threaten to break the covenant of silence that has protected their families for hundreds of years.

A busy young actress who was discovered a few years ago fresh out of a Wisconsin high school in classic Hollywood style - while waiting tables at a Sunset Boulevard restaurant, Ramsey broke into Hollywood on the ABC hour-long series "The Days" in 2004. After that, she landed her first feature role in Catherine Hardwicke's 2005 skateboarding drama "Lords of Dogtown," starring Heath Ledger and Rebecca De Mornay. Later that year she starred in "Cruel World" with Edward Furlong and Jamie Pressly. Earlier this year she appeared with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum in the comedy "She's the Man," a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night."

In "The Covenant," Ramsey plays Sarah, the hero's object of affection. "My character is the new girl in school," explains Ramsey. "This is a really prestigious school where all the kids are rich. I'm the new girl from Boston Public, so I don't have any money, but my character believes that going to this school will help her fulfill her dream of going Harvard."

Ramsey sees similarities between herself and her character, parallels she says director Harlin encouraged her to explore. "For example, I dress like her. She's kind of crazy and wild, and sometimes I'm crazy and wild. And she likes Steven Strait... I think he's cute too!"

Harlin has high praise for the actress: "Laura doesn't even know how good she is. She was such a harsh critic of herself that I decided to show her some of the dailies so she could see for herself how well everything was working. I can't even imagine how good she's going to get!"

Ramsey was thrilled to expand her on-set experience. "I had to train for a series of underwater shots so that it would look like I was levitating in one of the scenes," she recounts. "So I trained to stay underwater for 45 seconds and not come up for air. In the end they gave me a respirator and wax up my nose so they wouldn't get bubbles in the shot."

Opening soon across the Philippines, "The Covenant" is distributed by Columbia Pictures, the local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.